Danes watch BU steal win at SEFCU Arena

ALBANY — This was a game the University at Albany should not have lost.

“Absolutely,” said redshirt freshman guard Peter Hooley. “We promised ourselves that we were not going to have another heartbreaking loss like we did last year against Stony Brook.”

Promise broken.

Wednesday’s 85-80 overtime loss to Boston University at SEFCU Arena will not be as crushing as last year’s buzzer-beating defeat to Stony Brook in the semifinals of the America East Tournament. But it’s still a loss that is going to eat at the Danes for awhile.

UAlbany came into the night alone in first place in the league. When Wednesday was over, the Danes (5-2, 16-5) were tied with Vermont for second place and Stony Brook, which beat UMBC on the road Wednesday night, was on top.

OF course, it doesn’t matter who is in first place on Jan. 23. The Danes, though, probably thought they would still be on top. Then things got a little crazy in the final seconds of regulation against BU. Mike Black, who suffered through his second straight bad shooting night, made two free throws to give the Danes a 63-57 lead with 15.3 seconds left.

BU’s D.J. Irving then made a 3-pointer at the other end to cut the Terriers’ deficit to 63-60, but there wer only 8.1 seconds left. All the Danes had to do was inbound the ball, get fouled, make their free throws and go home.

None of that happened. Sam Rowley’s inbounds pass was tipped by the long arms of 6-7 BU sophomore Malik Thomas. For a second, it looked as though Black was going to control the ball, but the ball squirted away from him, pinballed through a maze of players and ended up at the feet of Irving, who came in as BU’s leading scorer (14.3 ppg).

He took a couple of dribbles and, standing two or three feet beyond the 3-point line, he let it go.

“I knew it was going in as soon as I shot it,” Irving said.

He was right. The game was tied at 63-63 and, hello overtime.

In the extra five minutes, the Danes scored 17 points, which should be enough, but BU didn’t miss a shot (6-for-6) and scored 22 to win the game going away. Freshman guard John Papale, who had two points at halftime, scored 11 in overtime and ended with 18.

The Danes walked off the floor losers for only the second time in nine home games. It was only the third America East home game here with five more still to come .

“Our guys fought so hard for 19 minutes of the second half,” Albany coach Will Brown said after the Danes trailed 29-23 at halftime.

Brown said no one talks about this stat, but it’s there. In the last three years, the Danes are a combined 1-22 against BU, Vermont and Stony Brook. The next two opponents for Albany are Vermont (Saturday) and Stony Brook (Tuesday).

“We would like to win all our games,” Brown said. “We just let this one slip away. To us, it doesn’t matter who the opponent us. I don’t pay any attention to stats like that.”

Black, who was 1-13 in Saturday’s win at Hartford, was 5-22 against BU and ended up with 20 points. Rowly (14), Hooley (12), Jayson Guerrier (11) and Jacob Iati (11) were also in double figures.

“It is what it is,” Black said. “I guess you have to give BU credit. They hit a lot of tough shots.”

I might add the Sefcu was exciting…good to see a tv game draw so well with Duke(makes me Puke) on tv. It was a great college game and fans who don’t come out and see this then dump on UA and America East are the losers here.

A shame this series ending as BU off to Patriot League.

UA has two big games Sat 730 vs Vermont and Tues 7 vs Stoney Brook at home. I believe is $5 for GA, ifnot use your Price Chopper card.

A great bargain as always compared to that place I have season tix(TUC)

The top AE teams every bit as good as MAAC top teams if not bette like Stoney Brook.

I got upset by uppity Siena fans although I went to Siena undergrad and UA graduate.

Be Quiet agree. UA top team in the area, wish I could say it was the coaching. Again when to foul or not to foul. I remember when Fran used fouls to win a game, everybody second guessed him but a w is a w.

Tough loss for the players. Hope they learn from it. Guard play very important at this level of D1 ball as we all know. UA seems dominate with their guards. They need to be more consistent at this time of the season They have been playing well, but need to play within themselves, unlike their counterparts at Siena. All year UA has been playig team ball, best to get back to it.

Fun game but what a tough loss. Albany’s offense didn’t look much better than Siena in the first half as BU was committed to not letting Black and Iati get open looks from 3 and Albany kept looking for nothing else. In the second half things really opened up once they started to work the ball inside where BU was daring them to beat them. Those last 8 seconds were about as amazing a comeback as I can recall seeing live. Pretty sure BU finished the game making their last 7 or 8 three point attempts.

I went to the game last night and it was a lot of fun to watch despite the loss by the Danes. BU is much better than their record and they will not be a team anyone wants to face in the Tournament. When UA was up with 6 points left, it very much looked like the bag, but the Danes looked stiff in the final countdown and Irving and Papale lit them up beyond the arc with ease. The team overall played a hard fought contest but they failed to finish strong. If they are going to beat the upper echelon of this league – UVM, SB and BU – they need to finish these games. They have a balanced team and I like what Brown is doing with these kids. They compliment each other well and the defense looked decent until the OT stanza, where it fell apart. I hope they kick UVM and SB to the curb these next two contest and pay back BU and send the Terriers out of the league with a black eye. 16-5 is a good stretch, let’s hope it continues. GO DANES

Maybe it was Karma coming back to bite the Danes fans behind BU’s board in the 2nd half – motioning, dancing, chanting, trying to distract/jinx the Terriers as they shot fouls. I personally thought those fans’ conduct was VERY un-sportsmanship-like – kinda like alot of parents at Little League games.

Freddie: I know what you mean, but I think you see it everywhere in the student sections. Speaking of Siena, McCaffrey’s Hawkeyes went into their game the other night at Ohio State with the best free throw % in the league. They shot 13 for 26 from the line which essentially sealed their loss. No doubt the pressure and distractions from the rowdy Buckeye students unnerved the young Hawkeyes. It’s part of the game when playing on the road.

Is actually a shame that BU isn’t in the AE Tourney. I was thinking yesterday before I realized they were ineligible that the AE Tourney would be a lot of fun getting to watch the top four lay the smackdown in the quarters and then square off in two great semis. Without BU we will instead get one good game all tourney in the 2 vs 3 matchup. Also, what is up with $60 for the all session pass? Who is going to pay that when tickets are $5 a game?

First M Blackis a great athlete, and has the body speed and BBAll knowledge to play in the AE and perhaps other leagues ranked above the AE. However he has the same illness that hymes has at Siena. Thinks at times he has to do it all, only he can win the game. Is it his fault…..NO. Same as with Hymes the coachs cannot or choose not to control either player. Working out better for Brownat least with the record UA has. Keep up the good work UA play team ball.

You know, in thinking back about what I saw last night, I am not sure what the Danes could have done to stop it. The shots BU were hitting down the stretch were ridiculous in length and were contested. I think the BU three pointer that clanged off the front of the rim, straight up in the air and dropped through set the tone. It was just BU’s night. I give UAlbany A LOT of credit for doing everything they needed to do in the second half of the game to come back and win. It is shame it didn’t work out that way.

Matter of fact, I was at the BU@UNH game Saturday night, and there was none of that by UNH.
Guess my people sent me to this planet without sufficient traning – will have to ESP them tonight for further instructions.

#16 Freddie
Good idea for you to get additional training as you are lacking even the basics.
No one was waving arms behind the basket at UNH to distract foul shooters. No kidding. There aren’t any seats behind the baskets there. Now give me an arena with seats behind the basket where fans don’t try to distract the opposition free throw shooters or come back to this blog with a legitimate issue.

I’ve seen BU several times this year, including Stony Brook’s smackdown. In that game, BU could not put the ball in the ocean. Some of the shots they hit in the UA game were absolutely freaky. That being said, with the game on the line you have to be able to inbound the ball. The rest of the season should be interesting throughout the league. After the Vermont game, I said I had a feeling of deja vu. That was reinforced last night. If they drop the next two, they are done!

The basic of good sportsmanship is respect for the opponent. Remember – in any sports contest, you are either a guest in our “home”, or we are a guest in your “home”, and you/we should be treated accordingly.